Light Aircraft Recovery

City North can help with recovery of light aircraft in almost any situation. Here are a few stories about how we have helped clients.

“Think a 12,000 mile ferry flight in this aircraft is not practical? You’d be right”.

City North were approached by the owner of a Partenavia P68C to evaluate the most economically viable method to position the aircraft from the UK to its new home in New Zealand. Having evaluated various options, it was agreed that rather than ferry the aircraft to New Zealand, it would be dismantled and transport by sea. This was agreed with the owner and the project commenced. The aircraft was positioned into Bournemouth International Airport where under the guidance of City North’s Head of Engineering; a team dismantled the main structure of the aircraft. The other components, along with the fuselage were carefully loaded into a suitable container, which was dispatched within three days of the aircraft arrival. All the relevant documentation, including freight insurance, was prepared and approved by customs and dispatched to the engineering company in New Zealand responsible for the reassembly of the aircraft.

The journey time by sea was eight weeks. On completion, the project was deemed as successful, in that it was by far the safest and most economical way of transporting the aircraft from the UK to New Zealand. Had the aircraft been ferried, the short range and low altitude capabilities would have made the four week trip a challenging and possibly risky flight.

By transporting the aircraft by sea, an overall saving of over GB£11,000 was achieved.

“Landing didn’t quite go as planned?”

This Cessna 172 was being operated by a local flying school when it suffered a minor mishap when landing in a short, private airfield in Devon U.K. The City North team was dispatched with tooling and a recovery vehicle to retrieve the aircraft Once on site, the team proceeded to remove the wings and tail plane, then load the fuselage along with the dismantled and damaged components onto the transport vehicle For transport to the owner’s specified maintenance facility. The retrieval was accomplished in less than one day, with the aircraft arriving safely at the maintenance facility for the repair work.

“It’s sold….. All we have to do is deliver it!”

This Piper Seminole was imported into the U.K from Greece. Extensive work was carried out to transfer the aircraft onto the United Kingdom register and once completed the aircraft was then sold to a customer in the north of England. As is always the case, the sale was on the condition of “safe” delivery to the location specified by the client. On the day of the delivery flight, the weather at the destination airport was poor and resulted in the aircraft making contact with an obstacle on the ground, resulting in damaged to the aircraft. As a result of this occurrence, the prospective buyer Declined to accept delivery of the aircraft. The City North team recovered the aircraft by road to their base at Bournemouth International Airport for repairs. The aircraft was fully repaired and returned to service within a year.